Not a national issue

First of all, I understand that the Prime Minister was on television last night (I missed it, I was napping). But I’ve read the text of his grovelling to the Canadian people, so I know what went on. I also read the text of both Jack Layton’s and Stephen Harper’s responses to the PM’s speech. I agree, I don’t think a televised address to the nation was warranted — they’re generally saved for national emergencies or crises. But I do think Paul Martin needed to make a specific statement about his position. No, of course, the sponsorship scandal is not a national issue, but if not, then why is the media (and everyone else, it seems) preoccupied with it? I’m not given the impression that when Mr. Harper or Mr. Layton talk about getting on with governing the country, saving our national social programs and protecting the environment, they’re talking about the current Parliament. They’re talking about an election to put a majority government in power, specifically a majority of non-Liberals. Or at least, given a minority government, not a majority of Liberals. The role of opposition in Parliament is to provide argument to ensure the government is doing the right thing. Is the Gomery inquiry not the right thing? Is it not important to get the facts of the matter into the public record, which is exactly what the Gomery inquiry is doing? It is possible for the opposition parties to force the government into action, rather than into an election? Can we try that out? Probably not.

My suggestion is that if the oppostion parties force an election, that no one vote. I don’t believe that this country wants an election right now. In fact, I don’t believe this country ever wants an election. I’m pretty sure that what we want is a government who does what it says it will do, and act in accordance with the public will. Both Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton spoke about the environment, health care, child care and general social issues. Let’s get working on that. Regardless of a minority government, let’s let the Gomery inquiry do it’s job, which won’t finish until December anyway, and figure how to implement the Kyoto Accord, make some final decisions about same-sex marriage, get a national child care strategy in place, settle the border security issues, fix the gun registry … F—, how many other things are broken that are being ignored due to the sponsorship scandal?

Oh, and by the way, today is Earth Day. I encourage you to spend somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes (come on, how long is that really?) cleaning up garbage in your community. As well, put some time into considering your effect on the environment and how to minimize it.